The Alpine Horn

The Alpine horn! the Alpine horn!
Oh! through my native sky,
Might I but hear its deep notes borne
Once more--but once--and die!

Yet, no! Midst breezy hills thy breath,
So full of hope and morn,
Would win me from the bed of death--
O joyous Alpine horn!

But here the echo of that blast,
To many a battle known,
Seems mournfully to wander past,
A wild, shrill, wailing tone!

Haunt me no more! for slavery’s air
Thy proud notes were not born;
The dream but deepens my despair--
Be hush’d, thou Alpine horn!